1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hydrogen generation devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable hydrogen supplemental system that can be used with internal combustion engines for increased fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a number of devices on the market that create HHO gas, otherwise known as Brown's gas, which is used as a supplement to gasoline and diesel engines. HHO gas consists of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen. These devices typically comprise an electrolyzer which decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,696. The electrolyzer typically uses an electrolyte, most notably KOH, Potassium hydroxide, or baking soda. A voltage is placed across the device to produce the HHO gas.
The main problem with HHO systems is that they produce hydrogen and oxygen in a combined gas stream. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are not generally separated from each other. In the case of modern gasoline powered vehicles, this extra oxygen is detected by the vehicle's oxygen sensors which communicate this extra oxygen level to an on-board computer, namely an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of the vehicle. When the ECU detects this extra oxygen, it is a signal that the engine is running lean and the ECU adds more gasoline to the engine. This also negates most of the fuel efficiency gains. Also, the energy required to produce the hydrogen can create a substantial load on the electrical system of the vehicle if not regulated properly. Similar to running the air conditioner in any vehicle, the additional electrical load causes the miles per gallons to be reduced. Even though the hydrogen typically boosts the efficiency and miles per gallon of the vehicle, the additional electrical load on the vehicle to create the hydrogen is usually great enough to minimize or in many cases negate most or all of mileage gains of the vehicle, depending upon the vehicle's alternator output.
Exhaust emissions are becoming an issue due to environmental concerns. Internal combustion engines are inherently inefficient. In an internal combustion engine, 100% of the fuel that goes into the combustion chamber is not burned during the combustion process for neither gasoline nor diesel engines. The exhaust for all internal combustion engines includes carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen. For gasoline engines, a catalytic converter is used to convert some of the toxic by-products of the combustion to less toxic substances by way of catalysed chemical reactions. The combustion process in diesel engines is different from that of gasoline engines. Gasoline engines use a spark plug to initiate the combustion of gasoline whereas diesel engines use compression to initiate the combustion of the diesel fuel. Because of the difference in the combustion process of diesel engines, the exhaust from diesel engines also contains a mixture of gases and very small particles that can create a health hazard when not properly controlled. Diesel particulate matter is a part of a complex mixture that makes up diesel exhaust.
Diesel exhaust is composed of two phases either gas or particle and both phases contribute to the risk. The gas phase is composed of many of the urban hazardous air pollutants, such as acetaldehyde, acrolein, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The particle phase also has many different types of particles that can be classified by size or composition. The size of diesel particulates that are of greatest health concern are those that are in the categories of fine, and ultrafine particles. The composition of these fine and ultrafine particles may be composed of elemental carbon with adsorbed compounds such as organic compounds, sulfate, nitrate, metals and other trace elements. Diesel exhaust is emitted from a broad range of diesel engines; the on-road diesel engines of trucks, buses and cars and the off-road diesel engines that include locomotives, marine vessels and heavy duty equipment.
The current technology to reduce particulate matter is either particulate exhaust filters or exhaust systems that attempt to burn the particulate matter once it reaches the exhaust. The use of exhaust filters may require active monitoring to determine whether the exhaust filters have reached their maximum capacity. Further, the exhaust systems that burn the particulate matter are typically complex and expensive system.